On the 21st of J une in 1898, the New York Kerosene Oil Engine Company filed its incorporation papers with the New York County Clerk. The filing fee of 1/8 of 1% of the worth of the capital stock of the company amounted to $62.00[i]. If you do the math, the net worth of the corporation works out to be roughly $50,000. Not a particularly large amount, even for the latter part of the 19th century, but it was enough to make the Company a going concern. The principals of the company had very ambitious plans however and they had resolved to do whatever was necessary to bring those plans to fruition, even if it meant diluting each individual’s stake in the Company.
On November 23, 1901, the shareholders of the company, Feodor Hirsch, James W. Eaton and George R. Moran[ii], filed with the New York County Clerk a Certificate of Increase of the Capital Stock of the company, adding Augustus A. Low, scion of the Low family, as a partner. Using money that had been bequeathed to him by his father, Augustus was in a position of being able to give the company a $500,000 boost. I am not an accountant but I believe, perhaps naively, that $500,000 was a tidy bit of change at the dawning of the 20th century.
With the addition of Augustus Low to the mix there was set in motion a chain of events that would, in less than three years time, bring about the launching of a 38’ wooden vessel named the Abiel Abbot Low. Abiel Abbot Low was Augustus’ father, who had died on January 10, 1893, and I believe that Augustus named the boat after him as a sort of homage. His partners probably had little say in the matter. With the money Augustus brought to the company, he had some small measure of influence in matters such as this.
By December of 1901, George R. Moran was no longer with the company[iii], leaving Hirsch and Eaton with the task of putting to use Low’s money. At the time of Low’s investment the sport of power boating was in its infancy. In the early years of the 20th century there quite a few companies vying for a share of the burgeoning market for powerboats. Feodor Hirsch had designed an internal combustion engine that was rated at 10hp. Quite a few competing firms manufactured engines which generated significantly higher horsepower than Hirsch’s engine. New York Kerosene Oil was in a quandary as to how to make their offering stand out in the crowd. What they needed was an angle. They needed significant high-profile publicity that would highlight the reliability of their particular engine. To this end the company had the boat built and outfitted it with their 10 hp engine.
The Low was 38’ in length, had a beam of 9’ and a draught of 3’ 8”. It featured the new 10hp engine. Were I to plan to make a transatlantic crossing with what for the purpose intended is an incredibly tiny boat, I think that it might occur to me to ask for a bigger engine. Either that or hope that someone acting on my behalf would ask for a competency hearing. Ah what the heck, maybe I would go hog-wild and ask that someone throw in a couple of oars. The boat was really rather nice to look at but one must have at least some standards in matters such as this. While I do have a fondness for ridiculous undertakings, one really does have to draw the line somewhere. Fortunately, for History, Captain Newman and his son Edward, who was 16 years of age at the time of the trip, liked the ship just as it was and they had no reservations about making the trip, at least none that they chose to share with anyone. They liked the boat and were more than happy, even anxious, to take it on its maiden voyage.One possible explanation for Newman’s eagerness to get underway was the weather in New York. The City had been experiencing a heat wave for quite some time, one result of that being the blossoming of the mosquito population and the accompanying spread of disease. The newspapers of the day published
[i] New York County Clerk’s receipt dated June 21, 1898
[ii] Not connected with Moran Towing by either consanguinity or professional affiliation.
[iii] New York Times, December 18, 1901
On November 23, 1901, the shareholders of the company, Feodor Hirsch, James W. Eaton and George R. Moran[ii], filed with the New York County Clerk a Certificate of Increase of the Capital Stock of the company, adding Augustus A. Low, scion of the Low family, as a partner. Using money that had been bequeathed to him by his father, Augustus was in a position of being able to give the company a $500,000 boost. I am not an accountant but I believe, perhaps naively, that $500,000 was a tidy bit of change at the dawning of the 20th century.
With the addition of Augustus Low to the mix there was set in motion a chain of events that would, in less than three years time, bring about the launching of a 38’ wooden vessel named the Abiel Abbot Low. Abiel Abbot Low was Augustus’ father, who had died on January 10, 1893, and I believe that Augustus named the boat after him as a sort of homage. His partners probably had little say in the matter. With the money Augustus brought to the company, he had some small measure of influence in matters such as this.
By December of 1901, George R. Moran was no longer with the company[iii], leaving Hirsch and Eaton with the task of putting to use Low’s money. At the time of Low’s investment the sport of power boating was in its infancy. In the early years of the 20th century there quite a few companies vying for a share of the burgeoning market for powerboats. Feodor Hirsch had designed an internal combustion engine that was rated at 10hp. Quite a few competing firms manufactured engines which generated significantly higher horsepower than Hirsch’s engine. New York Kerosene Oil was in a quandary as to how to make their offering stand out in the crowd. What they needed was an angle. They needed significant high-profile publicity that would highlight the reliability of their particular engine. To this end the company had the boat built and outfitted it with their 10 hp engine.
The Low was 38’ in length, had a beam of 9’ and a draught of 3’ 8”. It featured the new 10hp engine. Were I to plan to make a transatlantic crossing with what for the purpose intended is an incredibly tiny boat, I think that it might occur to me to ask for a bigger engine. Either that or hope that someone acting on my behalf would ask for a competency hearing. Ah what the heck, maybe I would go hog-wild and ask that someone throw in a couple of oars. The boat was really rather nice to look at but one must have at least some standards in matters such as this. While I do have a fondness for ridiculous undertakings, one really does have to draw the line somewhere. Fortunately, for History, Captain Newman and his son Edward, who was 16 years of age at the time of the trip, liked the ship just as it was and they had no reservations about making the trip, at least none that they chose to share with anyone. They liked the boat and were more than happy, even anxious, to take it on its maiden voyage.One possible explanation for Newman’s eagerness to get underway was the weather in New York. The City had been experiencing a heat wave for quite some time, one result of that being the blossoming of the mosquito population and the accompanying spread of disease. The newspapers of the day published
[i] New York County Clerk’s receipt dated June 21, 1898
[ii] Not connected with Moran Towing by either consanguinity or professional affiliation.
[iii] New York Times, December 18, 1901
posted by Dean Perchik at 9:21 PM
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